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Charter flights will help attract tourists to Rota, Tinian
»MVA also hikes advertising budget for Korea to $2.4M
Marianas Visitors Authority marketing manager Bruce Bateman said having charter flights to Rota and Tinian is one of the possible solutions to boost tourist arrivals in both islands.
Bateman, speaking during the MVA’s special board meeting in their San Jose office yesterday, said having special charter flights would further develop the Korean market and solve the transportation issue.
MVA wants to further promote Rota and Tinian especially to Korean tourists but issues on transportation and accommodation, raised by the Korean Marianas Tourism Council, need to be settled first.
The MVA board said that it is about time to further promote Rota and Tinian as other tourist destinations in the Commonwealth.
“We’re trying to figure out solutions. One way is to have special charter flights, we could talk to Star Marianas but it would mean several flights since they only have small planes. We support charter flights direct to Rota or Tinian, the real key is getting there,” said Bateman.
MVA has also increased the recommended budget of promoting the CNMI to the Korean market from $2.2 million to $2.4 million. They would be submitting a $7.7-million total budget for the new fiscal year where part of their plan is to open offices in the cities of Tokyo in Japan, Beijing and Shanghai in China, and Seoul in Korea.
Japan has the highest allotment with $2.5 million in the recommended budget, while $2 million is reserved for China. Attracting the Russian and Taiwanese market would have $400,000 each.
“This will be our recommended budget for the next fiscal year, for the next contract that would expire in September. We will be preparing the [request for proposal] for the MVA’s offices in the said countries,” said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio.
Tenorio also raised during the meeting that they want to look into how much Palau, Guam, and Hawaii are spending in their tourism promotions.
“We still need to get information on other markets. Sample their population, but it would take a while to get the results. We will have a research committee for this,” added Tenorio.
